The House energy bill – two steps forward, two steps backward

I’m trying to determine whether the state of the House energy bill means that Speaker Pelosi won some hard compromises, or whether she was handed her head, politically speaking. It may be some of both, although I’m presently leaning toward the latter.

The House of Representatives will vote this week on a new energy bill for the country. It contains provisions that boost wind power, further subsidize renewable biofuels, and increase appliance efficiency. It also raises taxes on oil companies by $16 billion over the next 10 years and uses that money to promote alternative fuels and energy conservation. The bill also leaves in place the authority of the federal government to overrule states’ objections to construction of pipelines and power line corridors. With the exception of the biofuels initiatives, these are all good things.

What the bill doesn’t do, however, is mandate the use of renewable fuels, nor does it increase the fuel economy standards for cars and trucks. It also doesn’t include any funds for nuclear power. And these are all required to make a serious dent in the United States’ carbon emissions and improve our national authority.

In other words, the serious carbon dioxide and pollution-emitting technologies were given a pass. And all in the name of a bipartisanship that includes liberal Democrats and… Blue Dog Democrats. In so doing, Speaker Pelosi was forced to give up far too much and allowed the conservative Blue Dogs to hand her her political head. She might have had better luck in getting a real and effective energy policy passed if she had actually reached across the aisle and enticed Republicans into the fold with nuclear power instead of simply tuning them out of the bill entirely.

I hate to have to say it, Brian, but it seems that Pelosi doesn’t seem to have done much of a job on leading the Dems on the “big issues” – impeachment, energy, Iraq. One has to wonder at this point if it’s the Dems – or her.

Energy policy to reshape our carbon footprint is so important – for her to lose on this issue as she seems to have on all these issues is as if the Dems never won anything in November. But this issue, particularly, makes the Dems look like ineffective schmucks….

She certainly seems to be pretty ineffectual at this point. She’s trying to play some of the same games that the Republicans did when they were in power, but she either lacks the skill or ruthlessness to pull it off.